Inside TDV - The Data Vault Blog

Don’t Let A Lack of A Cloud Backup Melt Your Chocolate.

What can happen if you don’t have a cloud backup?

Ransomware and other malware will adversely affect you and your business if you don’t have a cloud backup.

The recent ransomware called Petya/NonPetya/GoldenEye caused Cadbury to stop production of their famous chocolate in Hobart, Australia. Sadly, Cadbury was not the only company to suffer a halt in their day-to-day functions. NPR has reported that companies in at least 65 countries have been affected by the recent ransomware. One of the purposes of such an attack is to have the compromised companies make payment through the form of the digital currency known as bitcoin. Bitcoin is hard to trace and cyber-criminals prefer to use it as means of payment. Experts initially thought that this newer version of Petya was a means of extorting payment from companies but, according to experts, it now appears that the main focus was to lay the groundwork for future sabotage. With attacks becoming more sophisticated and the potential for future problems, are there precautions that businesses can do to prevent future attacks?

In what ways can business prevent future attacks?

Below are some preventative ways in which companies can stay ahead of an attack:

Updating their systems to the most recent security patch/ software update.

Have a strong antivirus program.

Avoid: suspicious emails, questionable links and websites. For example, check the file extensions in Windows settings to see if a suspicious file has an “exe”, “vbs” and “scr” attached to it. If so, it may be a malicious file.

Verify the details of what appears to be a credible email, link, and/or website i.e., correct spelling of names, events, meetings, etc.

Have a disaster recovery program in place.

Making sure pertinent files (if not all) are backed-up.

Use a cloud service to help restore data.

What happens when the worse case scenario happens?

When your business gets hit by malware and you don’t have a cloud backup: this is the worse case scenario.

If your business has taken all the preventative measures, then your business doesn’t have to worry about retrieving their information from a cloud backup. As hackers progress in their ways of getting protected data, the responsibility of being one step ahead of the hackers is up to businesses who care about their confidential information. You don’t want your business to put in the same position as Cadbury. Melted chocolate, indeed.

If your business is concerned with not having a cloud backup, then feel free to contact us for any further information that you may have concerning cloud backup.